The "hey, look at me" culture of social networking took a strange and tragic turn Sunday when an Austrailian man died in a social media stunt called "planking," resulting in him falling several stories to his death.

Planking is social media activity in which a person lays flat on their stomach with their arms against their bodies in odd and sometimes dangerous places. For example, people will plank over railroad tracks, face down in water, atop motor vehicles, or in the case of the Austrailian man, a seventh floor balcony.

The planker then shares photos of the pose through social media sites like Facebook. The official Facebook page for planking has nearly 140,000 "likes," and according to the Montreal Gazette, which reported the death in Austrailia, planking is growing in popularity.

I had never heard of planking until today, and the most popular planking USA page on Facebook has only 92 likes. So maybe planking will remain a niche down under. Looking through the various photos online, there is plenty of planking that appears perfectly safe if not completely silly. And then there is foolishness like this. Or this.

The man who died over the weekend had been "out during the night," according to the story, and that could have contributed to the accident. I can think of some pretty odd places to plank in Milwaukee, but I think I will stick with the safe confines of the dining room.

Update:A reader shares a site called Delco Face Down, which offers planking photos and a map showing where various face-down shots have been taken. Enjoy.

Planking. Safely.

About Stanley A. Miller II

Stan Miller is a Milwaukee native. He started his career at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shortly after graduating from Northwestern University in 1997 -- a professional journey that began on the night copy desk and transitioned over the years to covering personal technology, general assignment city news, real estate, business news and general features as well as technology. Despite those evolving roles, Stan has always held firm to his passion (and near-obsession) with technology and how it is changing our culture and society. Stan is also the defacto geek culture writer, with a keen interest in and appreciation of gaming, comics, fantasy art and science fiction. He has stood in many lines for midnight sales of the latest games and consumer electronics despite the fact he played with them months or years beforehand at trade shows like the Consumer Electronics Show and the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Stan is much more than a game-boy, however and is always evangelizing the good, the bad and the ugly of technology, whether that is through public speaking venues or teaching classes at local institutions of higher education. When he is not teching around, he is most likely either playing fetch with his dog, Sophie, or riding Wisconsin's beautiful trails on his roadbike.